The Sacred Heart of Cornwall, Lanivet Church and Castilly Henge and Their Neighbourhoods led by Ann-Preston Jones, Andrew Langdon and Roger Smith

Ann Preston-Jones, Andrew Langdon and Roger Smith, Saturday March 22nd 2025, details to be confirmed but probably 10.30 to 4.30. Meet at the church, SX 0394 6421, What3Words: delved.graphics.searcher

Lanivet sits at the very centre of Cornwall and its name suggests it was the Christian church-site, lann, of the pagan sacred place, neved. Ann and Andrew will introduce the lann and the several early stones in the churchyard, ‘one of the most rewarding places to see monuments of pre-Conquest Cornwall’ (Pevsner). They include two tall elaborately carved wheel-headed crosses and a hogback tombstone. An early inscribed stone survives within the noble later medieval granite church.

In the afternoon we drive to nearby Castilly, a probable neolithic henge in which geophysical survey has identified an ovoid setting of pits, possibly stone holes. CAS members helped clear scrub in 2019 revealing beautifully sharp earthworks now carefully surveyed by Historic England. Views extend to Roughtor and beyond.

Nearby on Innis Downs other prehistoric monuments, include a fine barrow and maps show many more barrows here. Nearby is the important early Bible Christian chapel at Innis. Ancient and modern thoroughfares crisscross the area, long a communications hub, and a short way west, beside the A30, stood an early 20th century comms complex, the 1926 Bodmin Beam Transmitting Station, the first Directional High Frequency radio service in the world, broadcasting to Canada and South Africa.

Park in the slip on the west side of the A391 roundabout at SX 0302 6286, What3Words: huddled.geologist.charted

One of two early medieval crosses at Lanivet.